Watch I-CY flap its flippers to your tunes, and make it happy with lots of music and interaction! I-CY communicates moods through musical riffs, movement and tons of blinking light patterns! It even squawks to let you know when it needs more attention! I-CY loves to move and groove to your music, but watch out – flick its tail, and it won’t be happy! Plug in and chill out with I-CY!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

So what would life be like for a real-life Mumble the Penguin, the star of the recent movie "Happy Feet"?

"The real emperor penguins live in the harshest of environments, and although they are in many ways marvelously adapted to surviving there, they still do have it tough, particularly the young ones," said Barbara Wienecke, an Australian scientist who has been fascinated by penguins all her life.

Finding food, staying warm and raising families - none of these is easy for penguins.

It doesn't take singing or dancing, but finding a mate is hard work, too. Emperor penguins go courting by calling (they make a trumpet-like sound), head circling and bowing, said Tom Schneider, curator of birds at the Detroit Zoo.

Once a pair clicks, they take great care of their chicks.

"Very young chicks, when they are still being brooded, or guarded by their parents, can have an air of contentment about them when they are warm and well-fed and the sun is shining," Wienecke said. "It is absolutely beautiful to see the little guys with full tummies lean back against mum or dad, eyes half closed, little toes lifted off the ice and occasionally glancing up to make sure that mum or dad are still there."

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

An anonymous donor has given $6 million to Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo to help build a new penguin exhibit and zoo entrance.

Zoo spokeswoman Wendy Hochnadel said the donation was the largest in the zoo's history. The money was earmarked for the Humboldt penguin exhibit, which will house 10 breeding pairs of the endangered animal.

Zoo President and CEO Dr. Deborah Jensen said the new exhibit will include beaches and rocky tide pools, and that guests will be able to see the penguins swim underwater.

"This gift demonstrates how cherished the zoo is by our community and underscores the importance of the zoo's efforts to educate our visitors about conservation and how each and every person can make a difference," Jensen said.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Rockhopper penguins, a type featured in the movie "Happy Feet," have suffered a mysterious 30 percent decline in numbers over five years in their South Atlantic stronghold, conservationists said on Friday.The number of pairs of the small yellow-crested penguins in Britain`s Falkland Islands fell to 210,418 pairs in 2005-06 from 298,496 in 2000, perhaps because of climate change, a survey by Falklands Conservation said.

Figures from 1932 suggested that there were 1.5 million pairs at the time, giving an 85 percent fall in the species` main habitat, it said. Smaller colonies live in Chile, Argentina and on southern islands.

"The decline of the Rockhopper penguin in the Falkland Islands suggests a massive shift in the ecology of the southern Ocean, perhaps linked to climate change," said Geoff Hilton, a biologist at Britain`s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). "We don`t really know what is going wrong."

Other types of penguin on the islands have not suffered such a steep decline and have recovered from a poisonous form or algae that bloomed in the South Atlantic in 2002-03, killing many penguins.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Robben Island's rocky, wind-swept shores and the Atlantic's expanses were intimidating for a penguin after weeks of pens and pools.

So, when dozens of the birds abandoned as chicks by their parents and raised by humans were released back into the wild on Wednesday, most at first huddled nervously together in the frigid waters. One even tried to jump back into the cardboard box in which it had been carried to the island. But they rapidly grew used to freedom and swam off.Jardine's South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, which rescued 800 chicks in October, took about 60 of the birds to the waters around Robben Island, Nelson Mandela's former prison and now home to a large colony of African penguins.

Most of the others were already back in the sea as part of a drive by the conservation group to boost fragile populations of the bird, whose survival is threatened by oil spills and dwindling fish stocks.

On Tuesday, the penguins were taken to the island on a tourist boat and released with little ceremony three at a time from cardboard boxes.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

"Frigid and glacial, with powerful blasts of icy wind, Antarctica is no place for warm, cuddly creatures. Or so it would seem.

Yet Antarctica is home to vast penguin colonies - the wonderfully humanoid birds that define "warm and cuddly." While journeying to Antarctica, I have been privileged to photograph eight species of penguins, seven of which are portrayed here.

I consider my Antarctica travels a high point of my life. As you view my pictures and read my stories, I hope that you can share the sense of wonder I feel for these creatures and the wondrous place they call home."

The blue-footed booby and 39 other animals, each unique in its own way, are available for adoption through World Wildlife Fund's symbolic animal adoption program, which allows gift-givers to adopt an animal in honor of a friend, colleague or loved one. Adoption levels range in price from $25 to $250 and for the month of December, all adoptions of $50 or more will get free priority shipping. Blue-footed boobies shown here with the blue-footed booby plush, available with an adoption of $50 or more at www.worldwildlife.org/gifts or 800-CALL-WWF.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Emperor penguins are hawking batteries in commercials with Duracell-powered "penguin cams" strapped to their backs, and, in a Capital One TV spot, they surround a shivering couple vacationing in Antarctica because their credit card miles program blacked out flights to warm resort locales.

Penguins also are strutting on packaging for Minute Made lemonade, Entenmanns gingerbread cookie and more, and on Web site banners, such as at the Mystery Guild book club. Hallmark is offering a discount, with the purchase of greeting cards, on its animated penguins-decorating-a-tree decoration.

And Coca Cola has resurrected its ad showing penguins making friends with polar bears (never mind that they live in different hemispheres) by offering them a Coke.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Silver Spring had the penguin craze down long before ‘‘Happy Feet” came along.

While penguins have become quite popular following the release of a movie about the flightless birds who find their soul mate through song — and for one little guy who can’t sing and dance — Silver Spring’s ‘‘unofficial mascot” has been two-stepping through the downtown for years.

So long, in fact, that the black-and-white bird can be seen on street corners, in the library, in Borders Books and Music, and by the Metro station, and no one really questions its presence.

All 15 of the African blackfooted penguins at the Georgia Aquarium are safely accounted for.

It's important to say that up front because, if you believe rumors circulating in the midstate, one of the little tuxedoed fellows was supposedly birdnapped in recent weeks by a student from West Laurens High School.

In fact, in a plot worthy of Oswald Cobblepot (aka The Penguin from the Batman comics), the case of the purloined penguin has been floating around for the past decade or so from virtually any city with a zoo or an aquarium. It's a fish tale starring aquatic birds.

hose who come to McMurdo Station, the biggest U.S. science base in Antarctica, often dream of seeing the regal Emperor penguins or the smaller Adelies, but environmental policies require humans let the birds make the first move, and keep their distance in any case.

"If the animals are reacting to you, you're too close," is the general rule.

But sometimes penguins' curiosity brings them into close proximity with humans who are out in the penguin stomping ground, foraging for scientific data while the birds are foraging for food.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Stewart Island's yellow-eyed penguin chick population has been decimated after the worst breeding season on record saw just one chick out of 32 survive.Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust spokesperson Sue Murray says the disastrous season highlights the need for more research, but with funding set to stop next year, the programme's future and that of the island's penguin population hangs in the balance.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

This project provides 'executables' that enable you to make your own soft-toy Linux® penguin. To put it straight: You can find sewing patterns and a community to sew your own soft toy or stuffed Linux® Tux penguin here.

Friday, December 8, 2006

Sure, penguins appear cute on the screen, real or animated. But zoo personnel don't always find them that cute. Rick Yazzolino, a penguin keeper at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, said they bite hard and use their stumpy flippers to slap around anyone who annoys them.

``I've been bitten hundreds of times,'' he said. ``There's not a day that goes by I don't go home without a wound, a sore or cut on my hands.''

One more thing, he said: They don't sing or tap dance.

So what is it about cinematic penguins that makes them more attractive than most other animals?

George Miller, who directed ``Happy Feet,'' said the birds' anthropomorphic qualities, like the way they walk, account for much of their popularity. Also, he said, ``only in the last decade or so has there been serious documentary footage out of Antarctica. It's tough to get around Antarctica.''

Gil Myers, an area supervisor for penguins at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, where penguins remain one of the major attractions, said they also benefit from a growing public awareness that global warming and overfishing are threatening the habitats of some species, a major theme in ``Happy Feet.''

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Police patrolled Sydney's endangered penguins last night, searching for clues to the thugs who destroyed eggs and damaged nesting boxes.Manly residents also rallied around the endangered community living beside their homes – and in some cases wandering around their backyards – vowing to fight for the penguins' survival at any cost.

"If I ever found someone down there harassing them, I would kill them, that's how passionate we are about them," Garry, who lives next to the colony, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

In April, the beginning of winter in the Antarctic, emperor penguins travel from the pack ice out at sea to the colony site for courtship and breeding. The trip is estimated to be hundreds of kilometers, and researchers are unsure how the penguins find their way.

By early June, the female lays an egg. The female penguin transfers the egg to the male, which will incubate the egg for 60 to 65 days, while fasting. Females usually weigh about 65 pounds, while males are about 25 pounds heavier. Because the females are smaller, they can't fast as long as the males, so once the eggs are laid, the females must return to the sea to eat, he says. When the female returns, the chick hatches.

It might look like the life of luxury, being hand-fed fresh fish and living in cosy accommodation on a health farm with a swimming pool, but these waddling wonders are getting some much needed R&R before returning to the wild.

Phillip Island Nature Parks penguin hospital treats an average of 140 of the island's tiny inhabitants a year for conditions ranging from starvation to boat propeller injuries.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Flippin' Penguins is a fabulously silly game where players must launch hat-wearing penguins onto a wobbly revolving iceberg. It sounds silly and it is. But it's also seriously entertaining in a way that only games this infantile can be.

Most companies would be overjoyed to have their product in "Happy Feet," the nation's most popular film.

But Itasca-based ITW Hi-Cone, the industry leader and inventor of plastic six-pack rings, isn't happy over the use of its "yokes" in the new cartoon film. Hi-Cone is calling "misleading and irresponsible'' a story line involving a penguin who nearly is strangled after he gets one of the binders caught around his throat.

Hi-Cone Vice President and General Manager Steve Henn says Warner Bros. Entertainment "didn't do its homework,'' and the company is asking moviemakers to clarify the depiction of the rings in upcoming DVD releases.

Henn acknowledges that wildlife can get stuck in the yokes. The Ocean Conservancy environmental group reports that international coastal cleanups since 2000 have turned up 191,789 six-pack rings. In that same time period, 894 fish and birds have been discovered entangled in man-made debris, though fishing line is the top offender.

But since 1989, under federal law, six-pack rings have been 100 percent photodegradeable -- they disintegrate in sunlight, beginning in just a few days, Henn said. Creatures overwhelmingly escape from weakened and brittle rings, he said: "A penguin couldn't wear it that long'' because it would crumble.

With the exclusive Penguin Place wedding cake topper, you can now celebrate your nuptials the way you were meant to as you waddle down the aisle. Two hand painted and decorated ceramic penguins stand atop of the pedestal this lovely and delicate five inch tall cake topper. The dashing groom sports a top hat and bow tie, while the lovely bride wears a classic white veil on her head. This piece can only be described as cute, cool, classy and original. What wedding could ask for more.

Monday, December 4, 2006

Curley says, "I’ve always loved penguins.I relate to them. You see, I’m not the most dapper-looking dude. I’m kind of a dork. And penguins are total dorks.They look funny. I look funny. They walk funny. I walk funny.

Yes, penguins do exist on the equator! The Galapagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) is the most northerly occurring of all the penguins. Endemic to the islands at approximately 14 inches in height it is smaller and more duck-like than its southern cousins of the Antarctic.

Friday, December 1, 2006

The National Aviary in Pittsburgh offers the daily "Penguin Connection" program, which allows guests to play with and touch the birds.This new program, where guests sit in a circle as a penguin walks freely among the group, provides a unique face-to-beak encounter. The penguin trainer will describe what it takes to care for these birds, from natural history to medical care.

The program plays directly into the current national penguin fever. The daily meet-and-greets quickly began selling out for November and December, so the aviary added a morning time slot during some of the busier weekends, "and those are close to selling out as well," said Nicole Begley, supervisor of animal programs at the aviary. For $40, a maximum of six people can register for the one-hour program offered from 3-4 p.m. daily.

Twelve of the world's 19 species of penguins may be marching toward extinction if the U.S. government doesn't put them under the wing of the Endangered Species Act, argues the petition prepared by the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, a national group with a branch in San Francisco.

"The same thing could happen to the emperor and Adelie penguins as is happening to the polar bear in the Arctic," Bay Area marine biologist David Ainley said Thursday, speaking from Ross Island off Antarctica about two species that live on sea ice. "They don't exist if there is no sea ice.''

The government must limit industrial fishing in the Antarctic Ocean to preserve the penguins' food supply as well as control emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere that lead to warming of oceans, which melts their sea ice home, the petition says.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

The Penguin Parade at Phillip Island, just outside Melbourne, is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Australia and visited each year by half a million people. The phenomenon at Phillip Island has made Australia's Fairy Penguin Eudyptula minor famous all around the world. What is less well known is that these penguins can still be found in many other places in southern coastal Australia.

A hundred years ago, penguins were a common sight along southern mainland Australia. Today, however, human development, feral animals and traffic have forced most penguins to retreat to islands off the coast where they are relatively safe.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Italian naturalist Antonio Raymondi once visited the Islas Chincha in Central Peru, in the middle of the 1800s. He was amused to find "hundred of thousands" Humboldt penguins breeding in burrows dug by themselves in the guano deposits. By that time, the Peruvian Government allowed to some European countries to harvest the guano (bird drops used as a rich soil fertilizer) as a mean of external debt payment. Guano was mined from the islands with adverse effects not only on birds that produced it (cormorants, boobies and pelicans), but also on seabirds that depended upon it. Humboldt penguins were maybe one of the most affected as they use the guano for building their burrows and because they do not fly, becoming easy target for guano workers. If you visit the Islas Chincha now, you will only sight some scattered groups of penguins in small islets. Penguin numbers on these islands does not exceed 100 birds.

Penguin Population Plummets Due to OverfishingHumboldt Penguins that breed along the desert coast of Peru and Chile are in trouble. Once numbering over 20 million birds, the species is now one-tenth its former size due to overfishing in the region.

Brookfield Zoo Humboldt PenguinsThe Brookfield Zoo, together with the St. Louis Zoo and the Philadelphia Zoo, has a flourishing Humboldt captive-breeding program, and are helping to monitor the penguin population in the wild.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Center for Biological Diversity, (Center), a non profit conservation organization, filed a formal petition today requesting that 12 species of penguins worldwide, including the well known Emperor Penguin, be added to the list of threatened and endangered species under the United States Endangered Species Act. Reasons cited are a number of threats including global warming.

Abnormally warm ocean temperatures along with diminished sea ice have wrecked havoc on penguin food availability in recent decades. Less food has led to population declines in penguin species ranging from the Southern Rockhopper and Humboldt penguins of the islands off South America, and the African Penguin in southern Africa, to the Emperor Penguin in Antarctica. The ocean conditions causing these declines have been linked by scientists to global warming and are projected to intensify in the coming decades.

Excited by the discovery of emperor penguins during Scott's 1901-04 Discovery expedition to the Antarctic, zoologist Edward A Wilson wanted to return to Cape Crozier during the birds' winter breeding season to collect their eggs. Darwin's theory of evolution had been published in 1859, and the hypothesis was that the embryos in the eggs might shed light on the evolutionary link between reptiles and birds.

Wilson returned with Scott on his second expedition, Terra Nova, and on 27 June 1911 - just after mid-winter - he set out on his egg hunt with Henry Robertson 'Birdie' Bowers and Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard, who was later to write of this journey as 'the worst journey in the world'.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Penguins have a lot to contend with. Ice. No ice. Snow. Storms. Oil spills. Help protect penguins and their habitats. And for those who want to take their devotion to penguins further, we can supply a pattern so you can knit a jolly jacket to keep a penguin snug after oil spillage.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Oil spills are some of the most challenging environmental disasters. These toxic spills pollute the ocean, often injuring and killing animals who live there. Birds and mammals need to be captured, cleaned, and given medical treatment to have a chance of survival. Rescue workers must act quickly—and sometimes creatively.

Rescue workers at the Phillip Island Nature Park tried different ways to keep the penguins warm and to stop them from swallowing the deadly oil. Dressing the penguins in doll sweaters proved to be the most successful technique.(via)

Friday, November 24, 2006

Penguins will be making a big impact this Christmas, thanks to a new animated adventure set to grab the nation's attention.

With this in mind, travel website Isango has come up with its top penguin-inspired breaks in Australia and New Zealand.

Penguin Place on the Otago Peninsula, New ZealandUnique to New Zealand, yellow-eyed penguins have their own special reservation on the Otago Peninsula on the South Island's south-east coast.

Penguins on Parade, Philip Island, Australia Emerging from the sea around sunset, these "fairy penguins" can be seen waddling up Summerland Beach to their burrows. Elevated boardwalks and special viewing areas give holidaymakers a great chance to witness the penguins first-hand.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Feet is a comedy adventure set in the land of the Emperor Penguins in the heart of Antarctica. These penguins sing, and each needs their own special song to attract a soul mate. Our hero Mumble (ELIJAH WOOD), son of Elvis (HUGH JACKMAN) and Norma Jean (NICOLE KIDMAN) is the worst singer in the world… but he can tap-dance something fierce!

A pair of penguins that survived a truck crash in East Texas have hatched a chick at the aquarium at Moody Gardens.

The baby penguin was born Nov. 12, an aquarium spokeswoman said. It is the first of eight chicks expected to hatch in the coming weeks from the penguins relocated this summer from the Indianapolis Zoo to Moody Gardens.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

It was a love story that touched the heart of New Yorkers. Two gay penguins at Central Park Zoo who - after trying unsuccessfully to hatch a rock - were given a fertilised egg and raised their own little chick called Tango.

The tale of Roy and Silo was even made into a children's book called And Tango Makes Three. But, while liberal Manhattanites may have sighed at the sweetness of it all, not every American seems quite so pleased. The book has caused controversy in a number of small towns in the American heartland, where teachers and parents have complained that it is not suitable for children.

Happy Feet is the story of Mumble. He is a little different than the other Emperor penguins. You see, Mumble can't sing. At the core of the society is the heartsong, the song that each penguin finds inside him or herself that they use to attract a mate. Rather than song, Mumble's heart is expressed through dance, and boy, can he dance. Unfortunately, his lack of singing ability proves to be an embarrassment to his father and he finds himself ostracized from society. To top things off, there is a shortage of fish, and Mumble's differences lead him to be blamed for this lack of food.

What follows Mumble's exile is an epic journey, a journey to find himself, find the food, and win the heart of the penguin he loves.

There are 17 species of penguin all of which have a southerly distribution ranging from the Antarctic itself to the Galapagos Islands. Only two species, Emperor and Adelie, have entirely Antarctic distributions. The rest live more northerly lives to varying degrees, 5 species being sub-antarctic, 6 southern temperate and 4 sub-tropical. Though one species, the Galapagos Penguin (currently the rarest species), lives in the equatorial band it is protected to some extent form the heat by the cold Antarctic currents which bath the islands. No species has crossed the warm tropical waters to colonise the northern hemisphere. Penguins are highly adapted to marine life and some species spend up to 80% of their life at sea.